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A Setback for Anti-Bullying Efforts?

Earlier this month, HRE Editor David Shadovitz reported on Tennessee Gov. Bill Haslam’s signing of the Healthy Workplace Act, which made the Volunteer State the first in the Union to pass legislation aimed at putting an end to on-the-job bullying.

In that piece, Shadovitz pointed out that 28 states have introduced anti-bullying legislation this year. Experts, he said, predict other states will soon take similar measures, adding that New York and Massachusetts appear the most likely to pass anti-bullying laws applying to private-sector employers. (The Tennessee law only affects the practices of state and local government agencies.)

While some states may soon follow in Tennessee’s footsteps, it seems that New Hampshire took a step in the opposite direction this week.

On Monday, Gov. Maggie Hassan vetoed a bill geared toward protecting New Hampshire state employees from abusive work environments, saying the bill was “well-intentioned but unworkable,” according to the Concord Monitor.

The measure—which state lawmakers passed after current and former state workers said they had experienced bullying behavior at work—would have required state departments and agencies to develop policies to address harassment, the Monitor reports.

Hassan, however, found the legislation’s definition of abusive conduct to be overly broad, which she says could make even routine employee interactions potential causes of action. The bill “also attempts to legislate politeness, manners and the interpersonal relationships of co-workers,” she said, contending the law would lead to a significant spike in lawsuits and subsequently hamper productivity.

Conversely, bill sponsor Rep. Diane Schuett feels a failure to put anti-bullying laws in place yields roughly the same end result, with respect to employee output.

“[Bullying] undermines the efficiency within state government if you end up with one or two employees being harassed on the job, either by another employee or a supervisor, and you end up with the entire agency being aware of it and feeling like they have to pick sides.”

There might well be some truth in both of those statements. Maybe the silver lining in the New Hampshire scenario is that the bill—which state lawmakers could revive by overriding the Governor’s veto—is at least on the table, with each side acknowledging that workplace bullying is a real and pervasive problem that must be addressed in some way, even if the legislation’s workability may be at issue.